Newcastle Northstars extended their hold on the top place in the Rurak Conference. Travelling to face a doubleheader against the Adelaide Adrenaline during week 14 of the Australian Ice Hockey League (AIHL) securing three out of six possible points.

Saturday night Northstars defeated the Adrenaline 4-3 in overtime. Sunday night it was the Adrenaline defeating the Northstars 3-2 in the shootout.

“It’s great to get points in both games, especially considering we trailed in both games,” Northstars Head Coach Kevin Noble told Hockey Hype Australia.

“Being able to push when you’re down gives a kind of experience that you need to build resolve for those moments in post-season when you need to stretch and come back because it’s not always going to go your way.”

The Northstar’s powerplay line has stood out this season, being the best in the league, and capitalising on their opportunities. Noble reflected, “There weren’t many calls this weekend, and I’d rather have it that way than those games where it’s too many. We carried large stretches of the play and I felt the lack of penalties was a change of pace.”

The lack of goals wasn’t for lack of trying, “We had a lot of good looks, and what we found was that Adelaide’s goalie was really up to the challenge,” continued Noble.

“When you have a good penalty kill and a significant part of your PK is attributed to goaltending, that was our issue on the powerplay — that we ran into a really good goalie.”

As Newcastle looks towards the last six games of the season, they are bracing themselves for challenges, both in their opposition’s offensive attack and in the quality goaltending that comes with it.

“We have to find ways now, when we come up against goalies that are making quality saves, to beat them,” Noble began, “a lot of times that comes down to individual execution.”

“Any team we play at this point is going to have solid goaltenders. This weekend, we’ll have to find ways to get around Toth by getting traffic in front of him and capitalising on our opportunities. If we can’t beat him with a first look, we have to find ways to beat him with a second.”

“He’s [Toth] probably one of the best goalies we’ve seen this year. He’s playing really well for them [Adelaide], he’s keeping them in the hunt for a playoff spot and I have no doubt this weekend is going to be equally as hard, just as every game will be as we get towards the end of the season.”

Newcastle has a level of security at the top of the Rurak Conference ladder, with an 8-point gap between them and the second-placed Canberra Brave. Every game matters, with six games left in the regular season before the final standings will be known.

Players’ mindsets can be helped or hindered as playoffs are heavily on their minds, and for Newcastle, Noble shared, “I think it keeps you sharp. Knowing that there are no easy nights is good for us. You don’t want an easy ride, but winning is more fun when it’s difficult.”

“Winning close hockey games is something you have to get comfortable doing because in Melbourne in the playoffs, wherever we finish in the standings, we’re going to have to win close games.”

“We’re showing that we’re really comfortable in close games. Our guys really have maturity in close games, and they’re comfortable playing from in front and from behind.”

“We are focusing on rounding out all of our systems and our detail. Each week we’ll focus on a different area and that puts us in the best position because it’s the little details in the game that change things.”

On Saturday night, Newcastle forward Francis Drolet demonstrated this detail with a pass off the toe of the Adelaide goaltender, which deflected out to Beau Taylor, who was coming in fast, resulting in the game-winning goal.

“We work on that in practice,” said Noble.

“Shooting off the pad. That was a veteran play by Francis and every guy in our lineup had one of their best weeks in hockey all really buying into their roles.

“From Francis, it was a smart and intelligent play against a hot goalie that he would have a hard time beating clean. Instead, shooting for a rebound and getting it to Beau was a really good hockey play.

“We are going to take care of what we can take care of and our goals for the last part of the season and we want to clinch first place.”

To celebrate NAIDOC week in 2024 the Newcastle Northstars collaborated with local Indigenous artist, Nina Ross of Baayanya by Nina, to create a design called ‘Stars on Fire’.

The special jersey will be worn when the Northstars face off against the Adelaide Adrenaline at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium on Saturday July 13^th.